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2011-05-23 - Raptor in the Jungle
For Thorn stealth missions were generally a no-go. I mean c'mon. Guy can't really pass for human if you get a god look at his face, to say nothing of his tail o the rest of his body. So why why WHY?! Did they have him and the rest of Talon Squad digging through an obvious set of tourist trap faux ancient 'ruins'? Actually... it had been his idea. See if he and his could handle a ground mission in 'hostile' territory. He'd chosen here because, well, sparce population. Lots of jungle, and an excuse to go with the trench coat and fedora look. Hey. Works in comics, and having six 'guys' glowering at the world in black long coats through mirroed sunglasses each obviously looking abnormal... makes most people keep away. Still. They've been 'good'. Nobody hurt, nothing stolen, no babies eaten. So far the most anyone's been willing to do is watch and mutter... from VERY far away. For a while, things had gotten better for the amnesiac girl known only as 'Lin'. She'd gotten a new unit, permission to fly, and was starting to feel more like herself rather than a prisoner. Unfortunately, such steps forward only ever seemed to come with their own sort of price. Sleep was becoming harder and harder as her dreams seemed to haunt her at every turn - sometimes lingering long after she'd woken up. Worst of all, though, she had her Ootsukigata destroyed by the strange Crusader god-machine while trying to defend Neo-MTV. Between the strange flashes and eerie feelings she'd been getting lately, it was time for a vacation. And that is what brings her here, to a touristy spot, someplace where she'd blend in among the crowd. The young woman is dressed casually, with tight-fitting jeans and a tank-top pulled up over a set of arm-bands that cover the skin all the way to her fingers. Her hair is mostly hidden by a bandana, although a few whisps of white are visible against her forehead and neck. There is a napsack thrown over one shoulder, and a camera against her chest, looking the part of just your average foreigner on a sight-seeing trip. Raising the camera to her eye, Lin snaps a picture or two of the ruins. Then, zooming in, she spots the coat-wearing strangers, looking like something out of a bad spy movie. Lowering the camera to her chest, she raises one eyebrow, and then glances at the rest of the tourists who seem to be giving them quite a bit of space. Pssh. She wasn't scared of men in coats and sunglasses. So, Lin heads just about right towards them, balancing along parts of the ruins as she goes exploring, not about to let them interrupt her vacation. Oh c'mon give Thorn a little credit. He and his 'men'... actually three of 'em were female but that's hard to tell even if you do know dinosaurs... were either taking notes, taking pictures, or picking through bits of debris that were obviously too heavy for a human to handle like they were. "Snarl. We're not taking any of this home... It's..." His face scrunched, "Rude. Even if they don't show more respect themselves." One of the others slumped slightly and sat back down a stone the size of a man's head covered in pictographs. None of them seemed to pay Lin, or any of the other tourists, much attention. None seemed that great a threat after all. Dinosaurs? No, they weren't exactly part of the cirriculum that Lin got exposed to as part of her time in Katharon. It's unlikely she'd have covered much about it in the Martian military either. Still, the coat-wearing strangers are enough to draw anyone's attention, even if most preferred to do the usual 'look the other way' response of humans who had been far too well trained to ignore oddities. Lin -is- an oddity, herself, so she has no trouble whatsoever sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? If you believe in fate, she's managed to survive at least two things in recent memory that should have killed her - and at least two more she /doesn't/ remember. So, at the very least, she's got five more lives to go through before her luck runs out. "So..." Her voice seems to speak over the sounds of the others, still balancing along the rocks in a relaxed manner. Her hands are extended somewhat, although there isn't even the faintest wobble in her legs. "What exactly are you guys looking for?" She muses, and then hops down, her feet landing gracefully on the uneven turrain as if it came naturally to her. "Because you're obviously not tourists." She's not quite close enough to get a good look at them yet, although if she keeps approaching, it's likely that she'll figure out that they aren't human in short order. The hair. The fact the arms were covered... eneral build. Perhaps it was blind luck rather than deductive reasoning, but while the majority of the coat wearing oddballs seemed to ignore 'Lin' Thorn approached her. "Our business is our own." He smiled in what might have been a friendly manner if it wasn't for those teeth. Nice sharp pointy carniverous teeth. "We're simply curious and get so few chances to look around what you people seemed to casually toss away a few thousand years back." Sarcasm? Possibly. It could just be his normal tone though. At first, Lin's eyes seem to linger on Thorn's face for a bit longer than strictly necessary. Of course, she doesn't scream, or point, or make any sign of being alarmed like many might if they came face to face with a creature that was wholely inhuman. Her head tilts ever so slightly, and the young woman just shifts the bag on her shoulder, easing the weight of it. "Well, if you wanted it to be your own business, you should try being a bit less conspicuous." She notes, not sounding fussed at all by the show of teeth or by the sarcasm in his voice. "You look a bit silly. Like you're trying to cosplay FBI agents." Her hand reaches out, as if she were about to just pluck the hat off of his head and see what actually lies beneath it, but somehow the young woman thinks better of it, and her hand drops again to her side. Looking beyond Thorn, her eyes taken in the sight of the ruins for a moment, where the jungle is growing out over them and nearly reclaiming them from the land. "We didn't 'toss it away'. Most of the indigenous peoples who built temples like this got overrun by the invaders from Europe, either by military might, or disease." Apparently, she'd done her studying during her few days away from the Argama. In many ways, she felt as if it weren't that different - what happened here - to what is happening now on Mars. A place she supposedly came from, but they were the enemy, right? "So... if you don't mind me asking... what /are/ you exactly?" She leans down, trying to get a look under the shadow of his hat. "I've never seen anyone like you before." There is almost a childlike curiousity to her question, as if seening the world for the first time through a new set of eyes. In response to Lin's attempts at getting a peek at his face Thorn borrowed one of Lethe's sunglasses-tilt manouvers to let his clearly inhuman snake-like eyes show before another borrowed manouver perched the glasses back where they were... all while his hands were busytrying to figure out how to make his camera do what he wanted it to. "Stupid...frakking...." Buttons too small for claws. Make Dinosaur not happy. Frustrated he stuffed the camera back in his pocket while Lin's assertions perculated through his head. "So... That is how it is. Not a care for who came first even when it's your own species." Granted he didn't need ancient history to teach this lesson. Just look at Mars, or the orbiting colonies for that matter. His tail lashed in irritation, a gesture clearly visable in spite of the coat. I mean c'mon. What human has a tail? Even cyborgs keep to the stock and standard four limbs plus head... usually. That same regard is shown in her eyes for that brief look behind the sunglasses. While she hadn't dealt often (well ever...) with someone not human, there were plenty who thought that 'enders' like herself were less than human. Luckily, she didn't look the part, like some of those born on Mars. Pilot training had left her virtually indistinguishable from a normal Earth-born human, with the exception of the well hidden marks on her arms. She watches him fiddle with the camera for a moment, a small smirk playing up the side of her lips. "Here, let me help." She offers, holding out one half-covered hand. "What do you need pictures of?" The clawed fingers, the tail lashing, she either doesn't notice it, or doesn't think it's worth really paying much attention to. However, she does note how his frustration distracts him from answering her question. Luckily, she isn't all to phased by this. "I don't think that's something isolated to humanity, to be honest. Animals do it too." She notes, shifting her feet against the rocky ground. "They fight for the best mates, land, resources." Ticking them off on her fingers, Lin looks up at him once more, and then shrugs. "I'd like to think we're evolved enough to choose better than that, but I've seen enough hatred in the short time I can remember to know it isn't true." Afterall, she got locked up and treated like a threat just for being born on Mars. After a moment's hesitation Thorn handed the girl his camera and pointed out a few toppled collums, a half-collapsed structure that was labled as a home.... or an outlaying temple structure or any of whatever the current fashionable theories thought it might be. "While we were in the area I thought it might be a good idea to look through the culture here." That could go into 'why they were here.' Could just be a cover. Thorn chuckled while his men went back to poking through, apparently leaving their commander in peace. "Also it fulfils one of our Emperor's requests of gaining first hand exposure to the culture and history we missed." Pause. "That and I want something that can be a little more decorative than the usual 'motivational' material posted on the walls." Accepting the camera, Lin's hand brushes against those claws, a motion that might just be accidental. Then, she turns it in her hand for a moment, looking over the controls. It wasn't too unlike the one around her neck - although most of them were the same these days - with varying qualities and such. Her own had been borrowed from Quatre after she'd shown an interest in photography. What neither of them knew, was that she had quite a deft hand at it - like so many other things, her body seemed to remember how to do it more than her swiss-cheesed mind. Walking around him, the young woman steps up onto a piece of outlying rock, crouching so she can start to snap pictures of the columns at the best angle, with the forest showing out behind it like a canopy of green. Composition, lighting, angle, and color - Lin's hand doesn't even flinch as she fires off a quick round of photographs before moving on to the next indicated sight. Her feet touch the ground, walking a short distance as she surveys the crumbling house for the best view. "Emperor?" Her eyes lift form the camrea lense as she looks over at him again. With a look of consideration, she weighs her options, and then seems to decide there is no problem sharing a bit of her story. "I'm afraid you'll have to help me out here. I was in an accident a few months ago. Got myself pretty messed up. I don't remember anything before waking up." Her free hand goes over that bandana covering her head, obviously indicating where the worst of the damage was. "I'm afraid I've never seen or heard of anyone like you before." This admission of ignorance was something of a surprise. After all hadn't everyone on this monkey covered mudball gotten a dose of propaganda, deserved oe Empire and it's intentions? Thorn frowned slightly before looking about. Sure nobody was really paying them much attention, but taking the hat off, or this blasted overly-warm cloat and show openly what he was just didn't seem terribly smart, even by the standards of his kin. It could be a trap after all. Still. His whereabouts were known and part of the reason he'd chosen this place was the long response time for anythin that would give him much trouble in evading. Damn. What were his orders on inquiring humans that didn't seem overly hostile again? Absolute confusion painted his face, posture and smell... not that anyone other than his unit could smell that good. When there is nothing but silence that follows, Lin sighs to herself, and then takes another step away towards the building and away from him. "Actually, nevermind." She starts, offering a small smile. For the most part, as much as the world is still a mystery to her, Lin had found herself accepting of the way things are. There were things she thought were wrong in the world - things worth fighting for - but this isn't one of them. If nothing else, she could always ask Quatre, or look up 'lizardmen' on the news feeds later. "Don't worry about it." That smile lingers, seeming as if it were true enough on her features. "I understand if it's not something you can talk about. I get that a lot." She still wasn't privy to much of the Katharon goings on, and that was after spending months serving as a pilot for the Argama. No one trusted her - for good reason. Half of the time, she had no reason to even trust herself. A girl with no past - no idea who she is - yeah, not a great security risk in anyone's book. "If you really want to see interesting human civilizations, though. You should check out the pyramids in Egypt. Or some of the tribal groups in Africa." She seems to focus on taking pictures rather than asking questions for now. "I keep meaning to visit Australia, myself. They've got these great motorcycle competitions down there, and I've heard the beaches are fantastic." It's idle conversation, perhaps, but at least that way she doesn't have to feel uncomfortable in the silence. There was a sigh then Thorn spoke, almost apoligetic. "I'm less concerned of you finding thigns out and more wanting to avoid a general panic." He started, slowly, after her. "I would suggest going elsewhere to talk, but I also am well aware at the implications and would rather you not be afraid... or somebody watching getthe wrong idea and my little day pass out being ruined by having to fight my way out of some backwater jungle." He handwobbled. "Then again..." He shook his head, discrding the notion. The young woman takes a few pictures of the 'house' like structure from different angles - one set against the rest of the ruins, another against the jungle. When she finishes, there is a moment of consideration before she takes one more. This photo wasn't one he'd requested, but onto the camrea goes a beautiful panoramic shot of the jungle with high mountains stretching out above it, the peaks of rock formations showing through the greenery and the clear blue sky stretching out above. Then, that apologetic tone in his voice has her looking back over her shoulder, hopping down off of the rocks as she makes her way back towards him, camera in hand. "There isn't much that scares me these days." Lin admits, a smirk on her lips. "I've survived being told I'm going to have my brain cut open by militants trying to discover out my secrets. Somehow, I don't think you could frighten me." As she holds out the camera, there is a flash of something blue on her forearm briefly visible under the cloth. Still, she does look at him a bit longer, lips pressed together. "Come on, walk with me." Lin reaches for one of his clawed hands, not seeming to care about the oddness of it in the least bit. "There's supposed to be this beautiful river spring back around the west side of the ruins. Only the locals really know about it, so you can ditch the tourists." Of course, she'd learned about it by being a single female by herself in a third-world country. Most men were willing to be quite friendly to her. As Thorn followed this, admittedly tall but still quite slender, woman his men started making a variety of noises. Some laughed, others made hissing or clicking noises, but they were silenced by a backward glance. "I'll return in an hour. Any of you start anything..." He let's the threat hang there before turning back to Lin... who still had his camera. Thorn smiled, which could be anywhere from disturbing to outright nightmare inducing depending on what you thought of lizard-dinosaur-people. "Sounds like a plan." He just hoped it wasn't one that involved HIS brain getting lain out on a table. He wouldn't put it past some of the more derranged mammals out there. Granted he, technically, counted Doctor friken Hell as an ally... but that was all the more reason for him to have the whole 'vivisection then forceable brain washing' scenerio on his plate of possible outcomes. As they start to walk, Lin gives one backwards glance towards the odd sounds being made by his comrades before rolling her eyes. She releases his hand, deciding that he didn't need any more encouragement. With a quick motion, Lin drops the camera into his pocket and continues to walk, putting her hands into her pockets as she nimblely makes her way across the stones as if this were a fun challenge to her balance. "They aren't used to talking to humans, are they?" She asks, seeming faintly amused by the prospect. "Neither are you, I'd imagine." At the edge of the ruins, where they fade out onto the grasses, Lin lowers herself off of the edge and lands softly in a crouch, looking back up at him. It's likely she might get to see a bit of what's under the coat if looking just right. "I'm Lin, by the way." If he wouldn't be a gentleman, then she'd at least offer her name out there. "At least, that's what I'm calling myself these days." As she pushes herself back onto her feet, taking a few steps into the grasses and away from the rocky turrain, the young woman turns and walks backwards, hands clasping behind her in an almost girlish way. "I can't remember my name for the life of me." "Lin..." Thorn seemed to taste the name before dipping his head in a slight bow to the taller woman. "I am Thorn, and outside of joint operations... no. I have had very little to do with your kind." He grunted softly before looking around, hoping to change the subject. "No wonder the locals wish to keep this place to themselves." He looked around, noting Lin's self-inflicted fall with a slight smile. "It is.... peaceful." Almost like the lands most of his people called home while waiting for the all clear to recolonize. Not that this Lin person would need to know that. Not even the Crusaders, that he knew of anyway, knew of that.... so why tell some random girl. No matter how facinating. As she continues to lead the way, it becomes clear that the young woman is actually following some sort of mental directions. She stops now and again, noting small landmarks as she walks around the outskirts of the ruins, moving onto a small footpath that extends off into the jungle itself. Even as they start to head in that direction, the sound of water is already lingering over the sounds of birds or the rustle of leaves in the wind. "Thorn." The name seems to bring a small smile to her features. "It's an interesting name. Thorns are sharp, dangerous... but they're actual purpose is to protect. Wonder if that holds true..." She looks him up and down, and then just smirks to herself as she looks away, eyes taking in the sights around them. When he notes how peaceful the location is, the tall woman simply nods her head, drawing a hand across her forehead to brush a few strands of white hair from her eyes. "That's mostly why I came out here." She takes a deep breath into her lungs, letting it back out. "Trying to get away from things and find some peace. Maybe even try to figure out who I am, or what I'm even doing." She looks over her shoulder at him again, "Have you ever forgotten something, and you know it's important but you can't remember." Her feet make quite motion over the ground, barely disturbing the dirt beneath her. "That's pretty much my life right now." "It depends on who you ask." Thorn rumbled deep in his throat as he tried keeping an eye, not to mention an ear and nose, on his surroundings. It would be a very nice catch indeed for the Federation to get him alive. Granted they had their pick of dead specimens thanks to the general bumbling and idiocy of most of his kind... what was it called? 'Overenthusiasm?' Yes. Still, even though he was weary he followed the girl. Why? It felt... good to have conversation with someone he didn't see day in and out. "You said you don't remember much from before... Where are you staying now? If you don't mind that is." "Guess I'll have to make up my mind for myself." Lin muses, reaching a hand out and letting her fingers run over some of the plants. The little things - the way the air smells, or the feeling of the texture of the leaves - these seem to be the things she's savoring at the moment. Little things, such as being able to have a conversation with a stranger without someone watching over her shoulder and making sure she isn't giving away too many secrets. "Mmm." A thoughtful sound slips through her lips as she considers his question. "Just now, I've got a little place I'm renting for the week in the city. It's just temporary, though." Of course, she isn't actually answering the question, and knows it full well. "I'm staying with friends. They've been helping me get back on my feet." As the path widens, it opens onto a small creek that runs through the jungle. At the north end of the clearing, the water spills down over a waterfall framed by huge ferns that stretch their leaves out, giving shade to the surrounding grasses. "Even that's just temporary, though. I'm still trying to figure out just where I belong, but I know it isn't there." No, if Katharon had been her home, she wouldn't still be treated like an outsider. The non-answer was accepted with a slight nod as Thorn admired the scenery. "I am somewhat fortunate in having a home and place where things make some sort of sense, even if I disagree with the objectives several of the other... ah... residents seem drawn towards. It beats the alternitives." Yea. EArth Cradle, or fiery pit of LAVALAVABURNINGLAVALAVAHOTMAGMALAVA!'. Take your pick. He took a breath and let it out slow. "I realize my people have made several grave missteps in our reintroduction to the surface world, but in the end..... fah who'm I kidding. You people seem hell bent on destroying yourselves. How can I expect co-existance with that?" There is a difinitive laugh from Lin as she seems to take in his words. She makes her way over to a rock set near the edge of the water, settling herself onto it like a chair as she leans forward, regarding him in this quiet place, away from prying eyes. "One of the first things they did after I was rescued is ask me where my allegances lie. How do you even answer something like that when you don't even know your own name?" She sighs to herself, folding her arms in her lap. "I still don't know. I don't even know if it's possible to swear total loyalty to one banner. Earth Federation, A-LAWS, Katharon, Trailers, Crusaders... they're are good and bad everywhere." At the very least, she'd gotten brought up to speed on the various factions currently waging war, which is more than she could say for those first, confusing days. Stretching her legs out in front of her, Lin offers another of those faint smiles. "You can take the disguise off now if you want. I promise, I won't scream or anything." In fact, she seemed pretty relaxed, all things considered. "But really, Thorn. You're telling me your own people never fight amongst themselves? There have never been wars over mates, or land, or money?" There is a skeptical look on her face, as if she were daring him to claim that his people were innocent pacifists who have never had internal conflicts - ever. "We're not perfect. No one is. sometimes you just do the best you can with what you're handed." "In the begining I'm sure there was.... but then." Thorn took his hat off, revealing a downey red mowhawk as well as lifting the shadows from his blunted snout. The coat was also removed. Strange. He was wearing a white t-shirt with a smileyface... that had a bullithole through it's forhead. Seems a bit normal given the obvious inhumanity of the wearer. "However we have been around far far longer than you as a species, and we had incentive to cooperate." The pants seemed normal... except for the fabric and buckle arrangement at the back where his tail protruded. "We had made an error in judgement when we planned our initial introductions." He snorted at the gross understatement. "We thought we had everything figured out." He crouched just off the trail and looked around. "So ready to frighten you into surrender.... We had millions of years. You only had a couple thousand... well OK fine maybe a little more than that given the Balmarians claim they came from here." He wanted so bad to keep from being preachy. "So many threats out there and you bicker amongst yourselves...... At least the depopulation from all the fighting has given this place a small chance at not being too overburdened." Maybe not. Ah well. While some might expect surprise or shock at the reveal of Thorn's true form, Lin simply looks on with her head tilted slightly to the side. The fact is, she already knew he was inhuman, the only thing she didn't know is just how much-so. "So you're... a dinosaur?" She hazards a guess. Afterall, she hadn't heard about the dinosaur empire, or about their connections to the Crusaders, or really anything else about them. News feeds? What were those? Lin had spent most of her time in simulators learning how to manually pilot a mobile suit, or downloading copious amounts of music off of the internet. "You know, the shirt really doesn't suit you. I mean, if you're going for comedy, at least try the 'you are tasty and go well with ketchup' approach." That smile stays on her lips, obviously not intimidated or scared in the least. She doesn't question his story of things, though, simply taking it in along with so much other information. Since her brain actually started processing short-term memory properly, she'd absorbed anything she could get her hands on, trying to fill in, or figure out, who she might be. "I'd doubt that your people have it perfectly right either, but you'd be surprised how well a threat from outside can bring people together." Macua had told her about the Balmarians, even if she'd been in status during their invasion. "Besides, if people didn't fight amongst themselves, how would they ever develop war machines to protect against outside threats?" Okay, now she's starting to sound a bit like a Crusader. Something that causes Lin to blink, and then shake her head as another of those eerie feelings catches her. Even here she can't seem to escape them. "There is much history I haven't experianced first hand and by the time I hatched we were in mid-buildup for the invasion." Thorn eyed Lin carefully. She never said who her alligences were to and her lack of reaction was odd in of itself. Even war hardened soldiers were... unsettled by his appearance if not prepared. "I suppose that is the whole point of my people now. To serve as the stick to encourage humans to try getting their house in order." Well that and ditch Getter Ray research. Seriously. Some things you /REALLY/ shouldn't be toying with.... "I like my shirt... The 'you look good enough to eat' schtick is generally Grim's territory. I feel it a bit played out to be honest." If Lin were observent she might notice a little rustling here and there the wind couldn't account for, and probably made by large animals... Thorn seemed unconcerned. He chuckled a little. "I do hope we can come to some sort of co-habitatio arrangement that isn't 'you stay on that side of the line and we stay on this side.'... seems a bit childish. Not to mention somebody's gonna cross the line and somebody else will get shot in the face." "I'm afraid there's a lot I don't know, either." Lin admits with a shrug of her shoulders. The fact is, she hadn't even known there /were/ walking talking dinosaurs until a few minutes ago. However, she'd learned not to be surprised by much these days. There were stranger things in heaven and hell... "I didn't even know your kind existed until today. So, I think I win in the 'lack of knowledge' category." She runs a hand over her head again, this time pulling back the bandana and running her fingers through the short-cropped white hair. It is untidy, as if someone had crudly shaved her head no more than a month or two ago. There are small pink lines visible here and there along her scalp. Folding the bandana and tucking it into her pocket, she takes a breath, seeming to enjoy the feeling of the wind in her hair. That is, until the sounds of rustling come from nearby. Turning her head, she gives one glanc towards the trees, and then back at Thorn. "Friends of yours?" She asks, casually, but doesn't seem to alarmed. She lets him have his taste in fashion, even if she doesn't exactly agree with it. Perhaps Quatre's influence on her has left her with an odd sense of style. If nothing else, the tall Martian is pretty well dressed. "Still, I'd doubt that that is the 'whole' point of your people. I'm sure you still have mates, babies, mothers, fathers." Sure, she's probably putting human social ideals on to dinosaur kind, but Lin is a bit of a romantic at heart, so it's not a far stretch to imagine this from the anthropomorphic dinosaur before her. "As for me, I don't see a problem living alongside your kind. You don't seem that bad to me." She shrugs once more. "Although, I admit, if you were to put a gun to my face, I probably wouldn't respond too nicely to it." "We have more than we let the rest of the world see." Thorn sounded like he was agreeing with Lin's assertions about his people. "However my upbringings would be, by your standards, .... Spartan." Litterally raised from birth for millitary living. "So I am not the best to ask on such things." He took a deep breath and exhaled, smiling slightly at one of the rustling clumps of jungle. "Friends... yes. They simply worry. A bit justified, perhaps, but then again go too far into caution and you hedge into paranoia." "I..." Lin seems to start saying something, but then nothing comes out of her lips. She pauses, looking a bit frustrated. "I can't say much about my upbringing." She sighs, seeming to give up on wracking her mind for anything that vaguely resembles a memory. "I don't think it was exactly pleasant, though." Admitting this, even to herself, is a hard thing to do. "I keep having these nightmares. Monster robots, dead children. I don't sleep much." The laugh she manages is a dry one. Her eyes do another quick sweep of the surrounding area, although she doesn't seem frightened by being watched. "Well, you don't have anything to worry about. I don't have a gundam hidden up my sleeve, and I certainly didn't come out here looking to start a fight with anyone. Just... wanted to get away for a while." She leans back, letting herself sprawl out on the rock, hooking her arms behind her head as she spies the clouds moving by above. The posture itself shows she is completely at ease, and probably very little threat. In fact, it's a position that would leave her quite exposed if the dinosaurs did want to harm her. "Spend enough time in space and you start to miss fresh air. Gravity. The sun." Yes. Let's get the topic on something less depressing hm? "Fresh air. Gravity." Thorn made a few clicking noises which seemed to signal whatever was in the surrounding overgrowth to back off. "Ever ride a motercycle?" Casual question that brought to his mind some of his more pleasent memories. His kind were meant to go fast, hunt in packs. Scarre the living drek out of anything and everything before swooping in. "One of the reasons I'm here. Racing." The clicking sound has Lin's eyes turning towards Thorn, although she doesn't comment on them. Strange ways that these dinosaurs communicate and deal with one another. Then again, she found the way most humans interact to be quite strange. "I'd imagine your kind would like the sun." Afterall, lizards did tend to like warmth, right? She closes her eyes for a moment, like some creature savoring the warmth of the light. It doesn't last long, though, as she rolls herself over, still sprawled out on the rock. She doesn't seem to have a problem letting the more depressing topic slide. Apparently deep conversation and dinosaurs do not go well together. "Motorcycles?" She asks, seeming to perk a little bit. "You ride?" Pushing herself back up into a sitting position, this topic seems to definitely have caught her interest. A smile forms on her lips as she raises those covered shoulders once in a shrug. "I've never been on one, myself, but I want to learn how." The smile widens slightly as she offers a small laugh, brushing at her white hair as she draws it back from her face. "And how to skateboard, and ski, and sky dive, and ..." She cuts herself off, laughing softly, "I've got a long list." Thorn laughs, "I bet you do." With a less than pleasent upbringing and finding just what the world has to offer Thorn was personally familliar with overly long do lists. "I've had to have heavy modifications to accomidate... well..." He flexed his thicker than your average fingers. "Kinda hard to hit the right switches if everything feels like it's too close together. Still. Having the wind on you is a pleasent sinsation." The girl had never been on a bike. The front part of his brain was wrestling with the back part of his brain on how to handle that one... and it showed. Edging her feet over, Lin manages to get herself back up onto her feet without too much effort. There is a certain easiness to her movements that could be mistaken for just some natural grace rather than the life-long training she's had to hone her body for combat. "I figure I've lost about twenty years or so of my life, so I've got lots to make up for." The fact is, the young woman certainly doesn't look older than twenty-five, but that's still a lot of life to have randomly stolen from you. Her eyes wander down to his oddly-shaped hands, nodding once. "I can imagine, but at least it isn't too hard to find mechanics who can do that sort of thing. I've seen them perform miracles." Even if the best techs on the Argama couldn't do much with the scrap left over from her Ootsukigata. She takes a few steps closer towards him, a friendly distance - hopefully not enough to set off the 'guards' in the forest. "Maybe you could take me for a ride sometime?" She's forward enough to ask for what she wants rather than beating around the bush about it. "I mean, if you don't mind some weird human being that close." "We'll see what the day brings." Thorn was increasingly amused by this woman. "After all I only have so much time before I must go back to base." He started pacing. "I wouldn't mind the company though." "Maybe some other time, then." Lin offers, still keeping that smile on her features. She didn't take it as a rejection, simply as an opportunity to perhaps follow up on later. Besides, it isn't as if she doesn't have places she should be. "I probably won't be in town much longer, myself. I've got a transport ship to catch tonight." The young woman's eyes roll, as if she were a bit tired of constantly being shipped from place to place. Not having your own unit - at least one that she could easily pilot without raising eyebrows - is difficult. "Tell you what, here's my e-mail. Shoot me a message next time you're free and I'll see if I can't get away for a while." Taking out a piece of paper, she jots an e-mail address. "I should probably get going, anyways. I wouldn't want your friends getting too nervous." She tosses a small salute towards the forest, then offers Thorn another of those smiles. Category:Logs